Local NGOs working in Cox's Bazar sought transparency and localisation of Rohingya response management ahead of the launching of the Joint Response Plan (JRP) 2021 on May 18.
The $943 million plan brings together the efforts of the government of Bangladesh, and 134 UN agencies and NGO partners, targeting 880,000 Rohingya refugees and 472,000 Bangladeshis in the surrounding host communities in Cox's Bazar, the UN said Friday.
However, opinions of the locals had little reflection in the document prepared by UN agencies, Cox's Bazar CSO NGO Forum said Sunday.
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In the last four years, the Inter Sectoral Coordination Group (ISCG) rarely came up with any statistics on how much fund had gone to host communities, how much had been used for local procurement and the number of local staff employed, Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, co-chair of the CCNF, Rezaul Karim Chowdhury said.
"During the preparation of JRP plan 2021, we provided written comments on behalf of local and national NGO representatives and also organised a virtual webinar on May 5, where lawmakers, local government and UN representatives had participated. But opinions of the locals have little reflection in the document."
"Moreover there is no outline about response management if no repatriation takes place in the next five to 10 years," Rezaul added.
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He was addressing the conference "Joint Response Plan 2021, Rohingya Response Management and Strategy: Hardly Fit for the Purpose and Futuristic" organised by CCNF.
Bimal Chandra Dey Sarker, chief Executive Mukti Cox's Bazar, said: "The UN agencies prepared the Localization Task Force in 2019 to prepare a localisation road map. The report was finalised and submitted in November 2020, but yet to be published."
Abu Morshed Chowdhury, the co-chair of CCNF, said: "There are three lines of coordination management – ISCG, Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner and Office of the Deputy Commissioner – now. But there should be a single line authority for coordination."
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